Match Review

You can check out the scorecard and Match Tracker here.

To me, the turning point of the game was Rohit Sharma’s dismissal in the 10th over, when India were looking only fairly smooth on 84/4, after which they accelerated the innings further and took the game away from England. The unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership between Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya of 75 runs off 45 balls, took India to victory with 15 balls remaining.

Highs and Lows 

According to me, the low of this game was the England bowlers’ performances, failing to defend 158 runs despite bagging the first three wickets within the first nine overs. After Shreyas Iyer’s wicket, Pant and Pandya put up an unassailable partnership of 75 runs as England bowlers’ efforts looked absolutely futile, especially Jofra Archer’s, despite some efforts by Chris Jordan pretty early in the innings. 

Rating Charts

At the end of the Powerplay, England were extremely shaky on 30/3, having lost their major wickets of Roy, Bairstow, and Root pretty early in the first innings. Root departed in the sixth over, courtesy of Bumrah, and at that point, India naturally had all the edge over England that eventually helped them taking the game from away from England. While Navdeep found India’s breakthrough in the form of Roy in the third over itself, the rest of the deed was done by Bumrah, keeping England’s run-rate in full check 

On the other hand, chasing a decent target of 158, India were on 58/2 but despite losing KL Rahul and Virat Kohli early in the chase, India didn’t look shaky enough at any point for England to breathe so much. In fact, even between the wickets, India’s run-rate remained well enough according to the asking rate as the target wasn’t too high, that automatically put England under pressure in the following overs. 

The opening partnership between Buttler and Roy was broken pretty early and England looked pretty weak in the first six overs of their innings. However, in the middle overs, England bounced back holding the hands of Buttler and Morgan’s fourth-wicket partnership that added 83 runs off just 57 deliveries. So at the end of 15 overs, adding 74 runs in the nine overs since the Powerplay, England’s total looked fairly decent on 104/3. 

On the other hand, India were in a commanding position despite losing the wickets of KL Rahul and Kohli. Then after Sharma and Iyer’s cameos, India found the start of a strong fifth-wicket partnership between Pant and Pandya since the 10th over. They remained unbeaten through the middle-overs and into the death overs giving India full edge over England.

At the end of the 15th over, England had only recovered from their poor performance in the Powerplay holding the hands of Morgan and Buttler. However, that partnership was broken by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 16th over itself as Morgan departed for 35 off 27. And soon Buttler was removed in the 18th over, courtesy of Saini. All in all, India’s death bowling performance was decent as they conceded 54 runs and bagged three wickets in the final five overs. 

On the other hand, English bowlers got whacked in the death overs as the Pant-Pandya pair looked in no mood to decelerate the chase even though they had enough time and deliveries in hand. The England bowlers’ efforts were rendered futile as India added the next 30 required runs in just 15 balls as India won the game with 15 balls remaining.

Not at any point in the game did England seem to have a pure advantage over India and it went on to become a purely one-sided affair once the fourth-wicket partnership in the chase took off. The game that ended in the 18th over was far from a solid T20 competition.